August is the time for Istanbul Modern’s Young Architects Program (YAP) events. Initiated by Istanbul Modern in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and MoMA PS1, the YAP is held biannually during the summer and offers young emerging architects the opportunity to design a temporary installation in Istanbul Modern’s courtyard. The venue, which is in front of the museum and made as a garden and a public space “Sky Spotting Stop” designed by SO? Architecture and Ideas is hosting exclusive and free of charge events.

On August 4 within the scope of YAP Istanbul Modern, performance art and social sculpture collective Silsila and Jeffrey Baykal-Rollins present a performance titled Flux. Created for Istanbul Modern’s waterfront area, Flux is a site-specific group performance embodying a transformative cultural reflection about the future. Directed by Jeffrey Baykal-Rollins, this two-part performance is choreographed by Ernesto Pujol, known for his site-specific performances and social choreographies. The one-hour performance will integrate itself into the museum’s architectural kinetic installation on view, creating an ephemeral hybrid space, an architecture-within-the-architecture, part surreal garden and part secular cloister. Audiences may sit and experience a performative meditation that engages aspects of contemporary life in Istanbul, with its lingering past and its pending future. Baykal-Rollins is interested in artistic collaboration and has also invited artist Ernesto Pujol to assist him in choreographing the piece. Pujol is a New-York based performer, internationally known for his public durational performances. He works in the tradition of German choreographer Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater.

Flux is the third project of the new Silsila Collective’s contemporary programming. Baykal-Rollins founded the collective two years ago, to train and perform with art students, art professionals, and urban citizens of all ages drawn to this experimental new medium and its potential social agency through collective portraiture. Prior to this performance, part of the group performed in Venice on May 23, at the Piazza San Marco, responding to that spectacular site. Images are available through:
http://silsilacollective.blogspot.com

Baykal-Rollins, who has been living and working in Istanbul for the past decade, engages in what is currently known “art as social practice,” combining performance with image-making, alternative education, institutional critique, and cultural studies in a reflection about contemporary existence. The artist hopes to continue working in partnership with local, regional and international institutions, growing his Collective as Istanbul becomes a stage for global art.

Later on August 22, at 6 pm Rob Sweere’s artwork Silent Sky#, with the collaboration of IPA International Performance Platform, will be hosted at Istanbul Modern’s garden within the scope of the YAP Istanbul Modern: Young Architects Program events. Silent Sky# Project, by Rob Sweere who has presented forth various kinds of output in museums, galleries, and outdoors between 1989 and 1995, turns into one immense happening with the combination of small events Sweere performed in various parts of the world. Silent Sky# is realized with the direct guidance of the artist and with the collaboration of the audience, to create an atmosphere in which the participants can interact with the artwork in the most intense manner.

Finally on August 23 Istanbul Modern hosts Monali Meher’s performance, “Visiting Marmara”, with the collaboration of IPA – International Performance Platform. For Istanbul, the artist reinterprets her previous performance “Visiting Pearl,” during which she has walked backwards with incense sticks in the city of Guangzhou, China. The performance starts from Istanbul Modern’s garden, and ends up in a mystery location along the Bosphorus.